Of Friends and Foes
by Burg Gurl
Summary: What happens when your enemie becomes your friend, but one of the people you thought was your greatest friend becomes your enemie? Dramione, rating for violence.
1. Chapter 1 A Friend Becomes An Enemy

Chapter 1: When Friends Become Enemies

**Authors Notes:** Hi everyone! Okay, so this is a little story that I wrote many moons ago, ok so about 5 years ago, that I'd posted before, but didn't get the reaction I had been hoping for, so I'm going to try again with this story only with a Dramione approach. I hope you like it!

**Chapter 1: When Friends Become Enemies**

He'd been very quiet since this morning, always walking around with a big mischievous grin, like he was planning something big, Hermione had been thinking to herself since she had met up with him that morning.

"What are you planning, Draco?" asked his busy haired, honey eyed girlfriend of just a hair over a year.

"You will just have to wait and see my vexing vixen." He said, as he looked at her, love filling his beautiful piercing silver eyes.

He had been in love with Hermione Granger for as long as he could remember, finally gaining the courage to ask her to dinner in Hogsmead after finals the year before. Their entire sixth year, they had become close friends when all the teachers of the classes they had together decided to pair them both up together. Though they were the brightest of their year and the teachers should have put them with more needy people, they managed to, in every class, wind up being partners. All the while being paired together, he was finding it harder and harder to be mean to her, trying to keep his façade in check.

At first, they protested towards the Professors; Draco continued calling her names and sneering, Hermione crossing her arms in a huff and retorting to every name that he shot at her. However, after the Professors continuously saying no and a few heated discussions in their classes, all the shadiness they had towards the other had disappeared completely, allowing them to finally find that they actually made good friends. This was almost exactly what Draco was hoping for. Through all his past experience in the dating field, he had found that relationships tended to last longer if they had formed a strong friendship first, though some did disagree.

They had decided that they didn't want to keep their friendship a secret from the rest of the school for ever. So after being friends for several months, they started walking to classes together, laughing and having a good time in each other's presence in front of the rest of the student population. At first, the students from Slytherin and Gryffindor were asked if it was some kind of ruse, but when they admitted that they didn't know what was going on and were disgusted with their behavior, the rational students started to think that it was possible that the two past enemies were now friends of sorts. Unfortunately, not everyone thought that way.

When Harry and Ron found out, Harry was worried at first, voicing said worry to Hermione, but after thinking about it, he came to the conclusion that this friendship between Hermione and Draco may be a good idea, especially if it brought house unity with the upcoming dangers with Voldemort. Perhaps, Harry hoped, showing the other houses that it is allowed to join together with other houses and bring them out of their school-induced exile. Ron, however, was beside himself with anger. He kept it bottled up for quite some time, pretending that he was happy for Hermione and acted civil towards Draco. But as everyone knows, if a soda bottle is shaken up too much, it will explode. And as it so happens that during Christmas break, he had finally blown, not being able to take their friendship a day longer when he saw Hermione carry a dozen yellow and red roses through the portrait.

That day, he turned into a human raging volcano. He'd called Hermione down to the library by way of his owl, Pig. On her way there, he ambushed her from behind and knocking her out by throwing a bust of Hangus of Woodcraft at her back. The result was her falling down one of the many staircases between Gryffindor tower and the library. When she woke, she found that her hands and legs were bound while she was lying on the floor with a throbbing headache. Looking up, she saw who her captor was as he sat in the corner on a little stool, staring at her with eyes blazing. But she couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it!

"Ron, did you do this?" she asked thickly, gasping in pain for she was sure that she was bruised all over, if not sporting many broken bones.

Responding in a very un-Ron-like tone and waving his arms wildly, he replied, "Gryffindors and Slytherins are not supposed to be friends, Hermione. It's like an unwritten law that everyone knows."

"I don't care. Draco and I get along; we are friends, and if you were one too, you wouldn't care whom my friends are. What is your problem Ron?" she asked, fear engulfing her as his hand swiftly balled into a fist and swung at her, hitting her square in the jaw.

"Nothings wrong with me!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls. He started pacing as he continued, "Being a Prefect, I'm supposed to uphold the rules of this school. And that rule happens to be one of them in the student written book. You broke it, so I'm going to have to teach you a lesson for doing so." Turning back to her, he brought his abnormally large foot up and swinging it down, forcing it to collide with her stomach, causing her to scream and cry in pain. Being so far down in one of the many dungeons in the school, she knew not many people would be down there to hear her cries for help as Ron continued his tirade of punches and kicks in between rants, but that didn't stop her from trying.

Finally, it was as if an angel had heard her cries for help, coming to rescue her in the form of a tall dark figure in the doorway, the light behind them seemingly brighter than normal for torches. Looking around, they rushed towards her. But before she could see or hear who it was, everything became quiet and dark as her head hit the ground in a dead faint from the pain that had been inflicted.

She had woken up screaming, two weeks later, due to a nightmare that she was still being beaten by Ron. Luckily, a large pair of hands met her shoulders and gently pressed against her in hopes to get her to lie back down and relax.

"Shh! It's OK Hermione. It's OK. You're in the Hospital wing, you've been here for two weeks, and Madam Pompfrey says that you will be fine." Came the soothing voice that she knew was the voice of a friend- the voice of the man that she'd become friends with over the past several months.

"Draco!" she cried as she sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, suddenly wishing she hadn't. Ignoring the pain, she left her body leaning up against him, arms wrapped tightly around his neck as if he would disappear if she let go, his own arms wrapped around her gingerly as if she would break from her injuries.

Breaking into racking sobs in his shoulder, she managed to say, "It was horrible! He as-asked m-me to meet him in th-the library for help, b-but when I was on my way there, s-something b-b-big and h-heavy hit m-me in the ba-back. I don't remember anything after tha-that until I woke up find m-my arms and legs b-bound and Ron looking at me w-with such hatred. I asked h-him what he was d-doing and h-he gave me this huge lecture about how G-Gryffindors and Sl-Slytherins weren't me-meant to be f-friends." Draco helped calm her by gently supporting her back with his left hand and gently stroking her hair with his right, rocking her back and forth, calming her sobbing with his soft, smooth voice. "Shh" he continuously cooed during her story. He noticed that this worked every time she had returned to their favorite classroom at their usual time in tears, whether it was problems with Ron or it was an assignment that was stressing her out, this way of comfort always worked to calm her tears.

Sobering slightly, she turned her face from his neck up to look into his grey eyes, now molten silver with emotion, and asked in quick succession, "What happened down there? Where…where is he? Who came to save me? How…"

"Hermione, please calm down," chuckled the Slytherin Prince. "I'll answer your questions, if you will just be calm." Breaking away, Hermione took a few deep breaths while leaning back carefully on her pillows, finding her back to still be a bit tender.

"Alright," she assented, looking down as if she was a little girl being scolded for having her hand in the cookie jar.

"All right then. Your first question: what happened? From what I understand and by what I heard from the Slytherin gossip in the common room, Weasley was pissed and he finally snapped about something. As to where he is, he's here," He said, quickly moving to restrain her from searching him out, "Locked up in one of the many dungeons. Your other question, who saved you," looking away, he colored for a moment, but quickly returned, "It was me. Like I said, I'd heard someone yelling very loudly, so I decided that I would go and see what all the commotion was. When I entered the corridor, not only did I hear Weasley yelling, but then I heard a second voice was crying and yelling weakly for help. Fearing for the worse, hoping that the second voice was ok, I started out at a run in the direction of the yelling, stopping not three dungeons away from my common room.

"When I opened the door quietly, I don't think I was entirely prepared for what I saw. When I entered the room, I saw Weasley take one more kick at you before you rolled onto your back, clearly having passed out. I realize that that had been what happened now, but at the time, I was too blinded by rage to think this." Looking up at her, his eyes glistening, he continued, "I…I thought you…I thought you were dead." He managed to get out. Closing his eyes, silent tears started making their way down his pink cheeks. He opened his eyes when he felt two hands cup the sides of his face thumbs wiping away his tears.

Clearing his throat, trying to regain his masculinity, he gently took her hands in his, "I was so taken up in emotion that I ran over to him and punched him in his overly large nose, causing him to land backwards, hitting his head on the ground and knocking him out cold." At this description, Hermione laughed while Draco just chuckled.

When they'd calmed some, Draco continued. "As soon as he hit the ground, I ran over to you and breathed an exceptionally large sigh of relief that I seemed to have been holding, for I could properly see you breathing, though however shallowly and in a rasping way. Once seeing that you were in fact no dead, I turned to Weasley's motionless form and put a binding charm on him so he couldn't escape before casting Locomotor Mortis on him so I could carry you here.

"When we arrived in the hospital wing, I called Madam Pompfrey over; surprised that Professor Dumbledore was following her. I told them what happened in the dungeons and she immediately took you to this bed, Dumbledore taking Weasley to a bed on the far end, as far away as possible from you, and started examining you, sending me out into the corridor saying that I could do no more for you. She left me pacing back and forth in the corridor for what seemed forever, finally coming out to tell me I could go in and see you. I drew up a chair with my wand and sat down at your side while she told me your diagnosis.

"She said that you had marks on your body that showed signs of falling down a flight of stairs. She told me that that alone had broken several ribs and the added assault on your back by a bust, which they found shattered, the separated mouth complaining about how it was very rude to throw busts around and that he felt like Humpty-Dumpy and that they should put him back together again, had also cracked a few vertebrae in your spine. Luckily enough, it hadn't severed your spinal chord. Just this happening to you had caused minor internal bleeding and she said that you should have been brought to her as soon as possible. But instead, Weasley decided to take you to a dungeon and beat you with in an inch of your life, literally. Pompfrey said that if that were to have gone on much longer, you would have died, not just pass out, from severe internal bleeding. I knew that this was serious, so I offered to stay with you, casting a spell every so often to make sure the bleeding didn't get any worse. I would have stayed with you the entire time, but both Pompfrey and Potter insisted I should get some sleep because I'd been at your side for two days straight. 'I'll watch her for a while, you go get some rest' Pot…Harry, told me," he said, a hint of blush still in his cheeks. Then he continued, voicing a thought. "You know? Harry isn't as bad as my father made him out to be."

"Leave it to your father to be shallow and give people the wrong impression about perfectly nice people with out even really knowing them." Hermione said, looking at him.

"I think that it's in their genes." He replied, both of them starting to laugh, which caused Hermione to cry out in pain, ending with her smiling weakly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have cracked a joke." He said apologetically to his knees.

"It's all right." She reassured him, wincing as she wrapped her right arm about her waist.

After an added three weeks, she recuperated; Aurors came for Ron and took him to Wizard trial where he was charged with attempted murder. When he was asked what he would plea to, he replied that he was guilty due to insanity. From there, he was taken to St. Mungos insanity ward where he quickly became friends with Gilderoy Lockheart, their second year Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, and Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom.

Draco and Hermione continued their friendship, once she got released from the hospital wing, through the rest of the school year, and people continuously told them, "You two should get together already!" Thinking that they were insane, Hermione and Draco just brushed the thought off, but it never really disappeared entirely from either's thoughts.

Finally deciding to stop kidding himself about his feelings by saying that he didn't love Hermione after what had happened earlier in the year and due to his reactions to the event, Draco made an executive decision to ask her out after finals were finished.

When they were done, they had their daily meeting up in their empty classroom like any other day as usual, to talk and study. During today's meeting, Draco decided, was when he was going to tell her his feelings for her. However, before he could open his mouth to declare his feelings for her, it was she who opened her mouth first. "Draco? What is going on with us? It feels like our friendship has changed."

"It has," He replied as he inched ever closer to her from across the table, leaning in to capture her lips with is. As he pulled back, a smug look formed on his lips at the look of dreaminess on Hermione's glowing face as she licked her lips.

"Hermione, I need to tell you something." He said as his voice turned into a whisper and taking her hands in his, scooting closer. "I've had feelings for you for a long time now and I'm afraid that I've fallen in love with the most beautiful woman in the world. I don't mean for this to sound like a proposal, but you've been a blessing in my life and I was wondering if you would like to go out with me."

Shaking her from her dream-like state, she whispered back, "I'd love to. I've felt something for you since the beginning of the year and especially since you saved me, but I was afraid. I was scared of rejection and the thought of losing your friendship over feelings I had for you that you didn't return, well, it terrified me more than anything ever has…even Voldemort. So I said nothing." Coloring slightly, she looked up onto his face.

"That's the same way that I've been feeling all year. I was afraid of rejection. Surprisingly enough for me, I know. But I finally decided to give it a try, because even if you didn't feel the same, we could have hopefully still have been friends. But I don't…"

"I don't mean to be rude, but do shut up?" she interrupted, laughing as she pulled his face over to hers.

Back at the Gryffindor common room, Hermione told Ginny what had happened and she said, "Finally! Harry, I believe you owe me ten galleons. Thank you very much!"

Looking at Harry incredulously, Hermione said to him, "Were you betting on when Draco and I would get together?!"

"Well…yes. And we were getting kind of worried that it was never going to happen. But Gin guessed right." He said sheepishly under his bushy-haired friend's incriminating gaze as he passed Ginny the specified amount of gold. But that sheepish face was soon replaced by a surprised look as Hermione launched herself at him.

"Harry! You're such a supportive friend," she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. As she headed up to her dorm, Hermione grabbed a spare piece of parchment and a quill from her bag and ran up to her room to send a letter to her parents about the recent development.


	2. Chapter 2 A Little Vacation

Chapter 1: When Friends Become Enemies

**Authors Notes:** Hi everyone! As I said, this has been finished for a while, so while I'm working on my other story, I'll be adding a chapter every couple days or so, hoping that it will give me enough time to work out how my next chapter will work… I hope.

**Reviews:**

**TinGirl314:** I'm glad you liked it. Sorry it's taken me so long to update… I got stuck in YouTube watching videos (Blushes)

**Lilith Kayden**: I'm glad that you liked the first chapter. I hope that the second lives up to your expectations.

**Chapter 2: A Little Vacation**

Before school had officially ended, Draco and Hermione had made plans for her to visit him at his vacation home on Italy's western coast alone, pending approval from her parents.

His vacation home, it turned out, wasn't a home at all…it was a mansion! Three stories of pure white stucco walls outside, with red clay roof tiles, the usual Mediterranean look. The inside, though, was completely different.

The foyer was huge, the ceiling reaching all the way to the top of the third story. The banisters of the spiral stairs and the connecting rails of the three floors were made of Mahogany. The rest of the house wasn't quite as grand as the foyer, but they weren't cramped. Through out the house, wooden fixtures made from mahogany and white marble with gold inlets adorned most of the rest of the house. When they got to the bedrooms, Draco showed Hermione to her room. Once inside, Hermione walked around admiring her room, unknowingly under the apprehensive gaze of Draco as he waited for her judgment.

The walls of her room weren't the bright white marble as the rest of the house, but a seductive shade of burgundy. Cushions, pillows and other various decorations in different shades of reds and browns were artfully placed at the head of her bed to blend with the walls. The walls in her room were painted in a deep purple with almost invisible paisley markings; her furniture was made out of Ash wood that was painted with a brownish-red stain. As she was moving around, touching and admiring everything in her room, Hermione felt a cool breeze play at her face, causing her to snap up her head in surprise. The cool breeze had come from an open set of French doors that had a thin curtain fluttering in the breeze, the frames in the same brownish-red stain, leading to a balcony. Intrigued, she went through the doors onto the balcony. The view took her breath away. The scenery before her was a mass of bright blue Mediterranean Sea, white caps forming occasionally, with not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfectly clear day.

Turning around, Hermione's smiling eyes met with Draco's eager ones as he looked to her for her opinion. "This is beautiful!"

Stunned momentarily by her hair being swept in front of her face by a sudden breeze, Draco quickly recovered and replied in a low, husky voice, "You are beautiful, so I felt that this room would be perfect." Draco slowly moved closer to Hermione, bringing his hands up to cup her face, moving in slowly to kiss her slightly open mouth.

A few moments later, Draco realized what might happen. Quickly sobering, "Do you need any help unpacking?" he asked, holding her at arms length.

"No, I'm a big girl," she said with half a pout that slowly turned into a smile as she looked up at him.

"OK, I'm going to start lunch. What would you like?" he asked.

"Surprise me."

Grinning, a mischievous glow forming in his silver eyes, 'oh I'll surprise you,' he thought as he moved toward the door. "Oh, and just so that you know," he said, turning around to face her in her doorway, "my room is just down the hall." To Hermione, the look on his face and the sound in his voice made it sound like an invitation.

When she made sure he was gone, she eagerly placed her clothes in the dresser drawers and left her room. Looking up and down the hall, she tried to feel for a "Draco vibe" in the air that she would hope would be coming from his room.

After walking up and down the hall many times trying to feel for a vibe from any of the doors, she caught his masculine scent of cedar coming from a door about three rooms down from her own that hadn't caught her notice before. Had that door always been there? She asked quizzically of herself, her hand reaching for the door's handle. Upon coming in contact with the handle, she pulled back and squeaked in surprise when she felt a slight shock. Putting her hand back on the door, she felt a warm, welcoming tingle as it shot through her body. It was as if the door was giving her the OK to go through. "Ok, that was slightly weird," She said to herself, surprised as she pushed to door in and entered the mysterious room.

Inside the room, she found it to be relatively the same size as her room and decorated with a beautiful shade of deep green. The room had the same style of furniture as her room down the hall, but this furniture had no colorful stain, just its original dark color. Continuing her admiring of the room, she found several non-moving paintings that covered large amounts of bare green space. On closer inspection of the beautiful pieces, she found them to have been done by DiVinci and Picasso, among many other varying artists. Turning to scan more of the room; she saw a large four-poster with no canopy and dark greenish-black coverings, looking extremely comfortable. Moving to sit on it, she looked at the nightstand next to the head of the very comfy bed and noticed that the stand had a few pictures of her on the top! Where did he get these? She asked herself. "Harry." A masculine voice whispered in her ear, making Hermione jump, again, and let out a small shriek in surprise, slapping him in the arm.

"Damit Draco! You know not to sneak up on me like that!" she said, laughter clearly in her quiet voice. "How long had you been watching?"

"Before we became a couple? I've been watching for years. How long today? Since you entered my room," said the Slytherin. "I came to tell you that lunch was ready down in the den, but when I saw you move into my room, I decided to watch how you explore with out knowledge of someone's presence, which may have caused you to not have done it the same way if you'd known I was there," he told her, looking about his room. "You would have been too reserved for my liking."

Lunch that day had been perfect. When they'd gotten to the den, there was a coffee table, in between a brown leather couch and a dark stone fireplace that was large enough to fit three grown adults in comfortably, set with the most delicious smelling food she'd ever come in contact with. On a plate, there was a large amount of what looked like Chicken Parmesan with linguini pasta covered in a mushroom Alfredo sauce. In a basket in front of that sat a mountain of rolls and aromatic garlic bread. They had wine glasses filled halfway with a local orchard's merlot to the right of their plate. But right in the center of the little table, there sat a single, bright red rose.

"Oh Draco, it's so romantic." Hermione gushed over and over during the course of the meal, all the while he was just staring at her, thinking up the next romantic adventure that he'd do for her as she smiled at her surroundings.

Merlin! She's so beautiful he thought to himself as he gazed dreamily at her before leaning towards her, lips touching. At first, Hermione had been surprised because she'd just taken a bite of chicken as she took in the room around her when Draco kissed her. But the aroma from the chicken in her mouth only made him want to taste it for himself. Slowly he moved his tongue and made lazy circles on her perfect teeth before she opened up and allowed him to taste what she'd been eating from her point of view.

It was Draco's turn to be surprised now, for when he'd gained "lordship" of her mouth, she had brought her left hand around the back of his head and gripping his hair, making their lips meet harder, which intensified the kiss. After a few moments of "slow" reaction time between the two, they became fully engulfed in their kiss. They didn't know that an unknown and unwanted visitor was in their doorway, watching them intently, and steely eyes glinting with malice.


	3. Chapter 3 Teamwork and a Dead Voldemort

Chapter 1: When Friends Become Enemies

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all characters mentioned in this story are property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Inc. No Copyright Infringement Intended. I am just using them to play with.

**Authors Notes:** Hey all, Thank you for your reviews. Here's the next chapter, I hope it's as good as the others. This one is a little longer because I couldn't find a good place to break for another chapter.

**Reviews:**

Abbidail123: I'm glad that you like my story. I hope that you continue to like it )

Keelycal: Lol, enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter 3: Teamwork and a Dead Voldemort**

When Hermione awoke, she thought that she would find herself on the couch with Draco at her side with his arms around her after the large meal. However, when she caught sight of where she really was, an unknown pain attacked her. Hermione gasped as she moved against her binds above her head.

"Is that you, Hermione?" A strained voice echoed from across the darkened room.

"Draco? Draco! Is that you? Are you alright?" she called frantically into the dark in the direction of the voice, eyes wide to take in as much light as possible.

"Yes, it's me. I'm a little sore, but I'm worried about you. Are you alright?" he said amongst the sound of struggling of chains.

"What happened? One moment we were...kissing, and the next, I wake up here." She said unseen blushing forming along with tears sounding in her voice.

"It was my father," Draco said, bitterness filling every syllable. "He was in the house and ambushed us while we were kissing. He knocked you out with some sort of curse. It was horrible! I couldn't do anything to help because he had put a binding charm on me and I couldn't move. Fortunately by chance, there was a sharp edge near me that I used to cut my bindings while he was concentrating on...on torturing you. When I could, I grabbed my wand out of my pocket and was set to place some curse on him, anything to stop him, but I guess he heard me because he stopped and took my wand by casting 'Expelliamus' on it. That's all I remember; I think he cast 'Stupefy' on me, "Casting a barely unseen glance downward, the early morning sun peaking through the high window now, he continued. "I should have tried harder to protect you, but I…"

"You didn't fail! Don't even think that! You had nothing to do with this and you did what you could. In the end, you probably distracted him from killing me," she told him, staring intently at the shadowed man, trying to regain his gaze from the ground.

"Oh how I wish I could be over there with you right now," Draco said, finally looking up at her.

"Me too," she replied.

They continued to sit like that for what had seemed forever in the cold, dank place that they decided was a dungeon, before a plate with a miniscule loaf of very dry bread and a small glass of water appeared. Finding that she was suddenly very hungry, Hermione grabbed for the loaf with her bare feet, having left her shoes in her room at Draco's home.

"I…can't…reach…it." She grunted while using her feet to reach the taunting food. Coming up with an idea, knowing very well it would most likely not work, she concentrated hard on the bread, imagining it flying into her open hands. Feeling power surging through her body, she cried "ACCIO!" making the bread soar into her awaiting hands above her head.

"Hermione, how did you do that?!" Draco asked her, a stunned look on his face that she could see now in the sun that was shining through the high window. Quickly, before answering his question, she cast Alohamora on her shackles, bringing them down and rubbing her sore wrists before getting up and attempting to run over to Draco, only to collapse in exhaustion a moment later.

Hermione cried out in pain as she fell, rolling over onto her back, looking up at the ceiling as Draco simultaneously cried out her name.

"Hermione! Are you alright?" he yelled, looking at her, a face of concern.

"Yes, I'm alright, I'm just hungry and I used what energy I had casting those two spells," she replied wearily after she had calmed, getting up on her hands and knees to crawl over to him, slumping against his semi bare chest when she got to Draco.

It felt wonderful to Draco, having her there with him like that, her head on his chest. It would have been even better if he was able to wrap his arms around her petite frame as she was wrapping her arms about him on a comfortable couch back at the house, but his arms were currently still bound above his head chained to a wall. In his predicament, he settled for just watching her slowly fall into a soft slumber, slow breaths in and out, wondering what she was dreaming.

"How I wish that things were different for us right now, my love," he whispered into her hear, the sound of soft whisper bouncing off the walls of stone.

"If you had not gotten yourself mixed up with the likes the Mudblood about your waist, you wouldn't be here right now," A cold, sinister drawl reverberated from the opened cell door. Pulling against his binds, he itched to kill the man that had done this to them, but since he had no wand he felt that he could do nothing.

Rage coursing through his entire body, he looked up into the stony, heartless eyes of Malfoy Sr., with only one question shining through the haze of anger.

"Why did you do this to us, father?" Draco asked, glaring at the man before him.

"Why do you think? I firstly want to punish you for evening having the smallest of tryst with a Mudblood. You are a pureblood Malfoy. You have tainted the Malfoy name by even spending time with it. However, your 'relationship' does have its benefits. The Dark Lord needed Potter so he could rid himself of the nuisance that has been plaguing him the past six years, so he needed bait. You helped us immensely. Though she may have been far away, they never would have expected us to try and kidnap the Mudblood, thinking we would go for the Weasley boy, even if he were indisposed. But I do rather think this plan went well, don't you? To lure them here, we sent McGonagall a particularly nice owl with a note saying that we had you and Granger and that if Potter and Weasley didn't come soon, we'd kill you both. Well, they didn't come soon enough for our liking, so we feigned your deaths. Now as to why the Dark Lord wanted to do it this way, using my own son, I have no idea. You should have seen Potter's face when he arrived, flanked by the Headmistress and the band of bird brains. If looks could kill…" he paused, but only to let out a laugh that was dripped with evil as it echoed off the cavernous walls that was their prison. Draco, who had been listening quietly, could feel his anger rising, its power filling every fiber of his being.

"Well, that's what they're doing now; I just thought that it would be fun to le…HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" he screamed as Draco's shackles exploded from around his wrists, causing Hermione to wake with a jerk and look around.

"You!" she gasped as she spotted Malfoy, his mouth agape, just now noticing that Hermione was there and not on the other side.

"How…how did you both break free? You had no wand! What…"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Draco roared, a bright red beam of light shooting out from his hand that he was pointing at the dumb-struck man. But as he said it, he noticed that he wasn't the only one casting the charm. Hermione was standing next to him; arm also out, yelling the same spell, full to the brim with pure hatred. Both spells were enough to send Malfoy Sr. hurtling backwards, coming in hard contact with the dungeon wall directly behind him, a loud crack suddenly filling the silent room.

"Do you think…?" Hermione asked sheepishly a moment later after recovering from the initial shock.

Not needing her to finish her sentence, he replied, "In a way, I hope not. He is my father after all. That and it would have been an easy way out of paying for all the things he's done. You know? I hope he didn't die. Mostly so that justice may be found for everyone who'd ever been hurt by him," he said as he looked down at her.

"Come on, we should check him before trying to escape," Hermione said, as they headed over to the motionless heap against the far wall. Bending down, Draco felt for a pulse, feeling better when he found a very weak beat just below his chin.

"He's alive, but we need to get out of here and warn someone." Draco said while rummaging through the older man's cloak pockets.

"Draco, wha…"

"Ahh, here we are. I do believe this is your wand." He continued, pocketing his own and handing her the twelve-inch, holly wand with one female unicorn tail hair as its' core.

She said thank you as he handed it to her before she said thoughtfully, her wand tip tapping at her temple, "Hmm…which one of us is going to tie him up?"

"Let's rock-paper-scissor it to decide," he said, bringing his right hand and placing his fisted hand into the palm of his left.

"Alright." Hermione replied, mimicking his actions.

"Rock…paper…scissors." They chanted together, hitting right fists into their left hands as they said the words. When they hit scissors, Draco landed his fist in a rock while Hermione landed hers as paper.

"HA! Paper beats rock!" She said excitedly as she casually waved her wand, binding him, then another wave levitated him into the air and onto one of the high rafters above their heads, a third wave secured him there.

"Good one love," Draco said with a smile, taking her hand and leading her out the door, hoping to find the exit in the maze of doors.

As they turned down corridor after corridor, it became very unnerving how they never came across any guard.

"This is eerie. I wonder if everyone is out in the battle," Hermione shivered as she heard echoing booms coming from up above.

"Are you cold?" Draco asked, turning his head in the direction of her chattering teeth.

"A little; as you can see, I have no shoes," she replied, suddenly stopping and slapping her forehead with her right palm, letting out a noise of frustration as her hand ran down her face. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" She said, starting to search the surrounding ground area.

"What are you looking for?" Draco asked, searching the ground also, though not knowing what it was they were looking for.

"I'm looking for two objects that are relatively the same size," she told him, seeing a pile of bricks from a wall that had fallen at some time, "so I can change them into a pair of trainers. My feet are so cold." Grabbing two bricks, she placed them on the ground side by side, waved her wand and placed the trainers on her feet. "Ah, that's much better," she smiled. "Now, let's find the door out of here, shall we?" They paused for a moment, "Do you know the way out?"

"Hermione, I may live here, but even I don't know everything about the Malfoy Manor. I'm willing to guess that this is a hidden area of the manor that I've never been to."

"Okay, how about we try the Point Me! spell? That way we will at least have a general idea as to which direction we are headed."

"That's a brilliant idea, Hermione!" Draco chuckled, shaking his head as Hermione grabbed his hand with a jerk and led the way to, they hoped, was the door. They searched for ten minutes, turning left, right, going upstairs and down, for the front doors, before surfacing in an enormous hall next to a grand staircase.

"There's the door." Draco nodded his head towards a large pine door.

As they opened the door and peered outside, they lost the smiles that had formed from finding the door out, taken aback from the sight before them.

Bodies. They were all over the small rolling hills like a steadily pitching sea. The sights made Hermione gasp and hide her face with her hands and burry her face in Draco's chest as he wrapped his arms around her for comfort, burying his cheek in her hair as he stared out over the scenery before them.

"Hermione?! Draco?! YOU'RE ALIVE!" cried Mrs. Weasley, running over as fast as her stout body would allow, tears sparkling in the dim evening light that had made it through the acrid smoke of fires and spells. Upon reaching them, she embraced Hermione very tightly before turning Draco and embracing him only after slight hesitation.

"Lucius told us that the two of you were dead! What happened to you?" She managed to ask once she regained her normal heartbeat.

"Well, Lucius came to 'visit' us while we were at Draco's summer home in Italy. I guess they thought that since they had our wands, that we didn't need guard, so Malfoy came alone. Well, we managed to escape our shackles and subdue him before setting off to find the doors to get out. We were definitely not expecting what we were to see of course." Hermione said, waving her hands over the landscape before them. Gazing around at the sea of bodies, she felt the body next to her tense up as she heard him whisper, "Oh god."

"Draco, wha…?" she tried to say reaching out after him as he took off in a run.

Wondering what he had seen, she followed him. When she caught up with him, she found him sunken to his knees. When she looked around him, she covered her mouth and let out a gasp as she saw what it was that had gotten him so upset. After a moment of stunned surprise, she sunk to her knees next to Draco and moved in front of him to block his view as she caught him up in an embrace, shushing him and getting him to cry into her shoulder. Blaise Zabini was lying on his stomach, arms flailed out about him, Indigo eyes forever keeping a look of utter surprise, a pool of blood staining the vibrant green grass.

"Oh Draco, I'm so sorry." She said, knowing that it wouldn't help.

Hermione had known that at one time, Draco and Blaise had been the best of friends, but they had since grown apart in their years at Hogwarts. However, Hermione could tell that it made no difference now. They had still been friends, though distant, and now Draco was with out him. As she held his shaking form, she continued to reassure him that it was OK for him to cry, starting to do so herself.

Once they'd both sobered a bit, Hermione became very aware of another noise. "Draco? Do you hear that?"

"Yeah…I do," he answered, quickly wiping his eyes on his shirt and furrowing his eyebrows, trying to decide what was going on. "Sounds like there's still some fighting going on."

"Come on, lets go see what we can do to help," she suggested, getting up to help Draco do the same, then rushing past Mrs. Weasley, whom was currently attending the injured, and moving towards the direction of the yelling and small explosions.

When they got to a clearing in the middle of a grove of trees that edged the Malfoy property, they skidded to a stop in the mud when they found whom it was that was doing all the yelling.

All around the two men, there were felled trees scattering the ground like a destroyed card castle, some of them smoldering and smoking still, but there wasn't anything or anyone in the immediate vicinity, save themselves.

"HA…!" she tried to yell before Draco wrapped one arm around her waist from behind and one hand around her mouth, quickly pulling her roughly behind one of the few large trees that remained standing.

"Shh! I don't think it's such a good idea right now. He still thinks we're dead, and right now, in order to defeat the Dark Lord, he needs all the power he can get from the love he has for you that he thinks he's lost," Draco told her in a fast whisper, hand still over her mouth, as he peaked around the tree.

Draco let her go to look around the tree herself when she nodded in understanding and watched as Harry, openly showing tears falling from his green eyes, exclaimed while slowly getting louder with rage, "Why are you so evil? You bastard! You have now taken away one of the few people left in this world that I loved. You not only took her away from me, but you took the man in her life. She was just starting to be happy, AND YOU SNATCHED IT AWAY!"

They watched as Harry pointed his wand and another wand, that they could guess as Voldemorts', at the pale cowering man on the ground who had a grin on his face. "If only you knew," the older man hissed with a slither of his tongue.

That had done it. Draco, upon realization, said, "Um…Hermione," while watching Harry, taking her hand and slowly started walking away, "I think that we should be running in the opposite direction about now because we don't want to be here when he performs the curse that I know he's planning to use."

Before she could ask him what he meant, his slow walk turned into running flat out in the opposite direction of the battle with Hermione in tow. As they reached the edge of the forest, there was a horrendous explosion and rumbling of the ground, the force from the explosion felling more trees and causing the two to fly and fall to the ground, then nothing- dead silence. It was as if everything in the world had gotten caught off guard and had forgotten to make their noises. After a few moments of nothing, Hermione let out a blood-curdling scream.

"HARRY!"

Wrenching her body away from Draco's arms, she got up and started running full tilt, back into the forest to where they'd last seen her tearing-green eyed friend just moments before.

Upon entering the clearing, Hermione slowed and looked around in wonder, seeing smoke rising from the newly fallen trees. Walking farther into the clearing through the haze and smoke, she saw just who she was looking for. Harry was lying on his back, eyes closed, arms and legs spread-eagled, holding one wand in each hand.

It was so quite in the grove that it startled Hermione slightly when she heard footsteps running up behind her that stopped just short of the edge of the clearing, but she didn't look around to see whom it was. Hermione just started briskly walking, almost jogging, to Harry's limp form that was also smoking slightly. From far away, she couldn't tell if he was breathing, but as she got closer she noticed, with a huge sigh of relief, that he was breathing slowly.

When Hermione reached him, her knees gave out entirely and she fell into a kneeling position next to Harry. When she softly and carefully brought his head to her lap, he opened a bleary set of bright green, slightly blood-shot eyes, gazing up at her then turning away in a faint.

"Thank you for pulling me away, Draco," Hermione thanked Draco as she felt his presence coming up behind her. "You knew what spell he was going to use, didn't you?" she asked, not looking away from her best friends' bruised and scratched face.

"Yes I did. In my childhood, I learned many spells you can use against evil because I tended to read in our library for hours on end, only emerging for meals and restroom breaks. My father insisting that I learn everything about the Dark Arts, including spells to watch for so as not to allow them to be used about his Master. The only spell that I could remember reading about that needed the use of two wands by the caster was the Evil Reduction Curse. That's why he needed all the power he could muster, because with that spell you need to have an extreme amount of power behind you because you are summoning an 'Evil Containment portal', if you will. It is basically like some kind of vacuum, sucking the victim into an endless void of nothing for eternity. If you'd gone in there, he would have lost his concentration and ultimately probably wouldn't have been able to cast it."

"You are absolutely right, Mr. Malfoy," came the calm, weary voice of Professor McGonagall. "You are a very bright young man having suggested that curse to Mr. Potter was probably what saved him, us and the rest of the world. Now, if you would like to help, we need to get all the injured and dead students back to Hogwarts, and Molly and I will get the adults of the same fates to St. Mungo's."

"Professor? What about Lucius Malfoy? Right now he's in the dungeon that we were trapped in before we escaped by use of wandless magic. We subdued him and bound him to a rafter, but he won't stay there forever," Draco said, blushing.

"Both of you used wandless magic? That's very impressive, a fine trait in our new Head Boy and Girl."

"WHAT?!" Both Hermione and Draco exclaimed in unison, then turning and looking at each other.

"But…but Professor! I wasn't and am not currently a prefect. How…"

Hermione raised her hand to his mouth to shush the rambling man, her gaze turning to the Headmistress. "Mr. Malfoy, I feel that your superior intellect and leadership in your house over the past six years made you a prefect, but because of what happened when Professor Dumbledore passed, Mr. Zabini was already slated to be Head Boy. Unfortunate it is at his passing, I think that I should make you Head, so as not to make any confusion by switching the house by keeping a Slytherin as head. This reason also goes for the fact that half of our Prefects had left the school to help Harry, and are now either dead or severely injured, so we have to chose many new people that didn't leave the school to refill the positions left by the dead, and I firmly believe that Head Boy should be filled by none other than yourself, Mr. Malfoy," said the aged witch, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth "Now, before it's too late, I believe you two have a Portkey to Hogwarts. Take Harry with you and please take him straight to the Hospital wing when you arrive. While there, I need you to tell Poppy…Madam Pompfrey that is, that there are many more people coming in that are in need of her assistance."

Handing them a large, fluffy blue sock, she said, "When you get to the Hospital wing, I would like it if my two top students would assist Madam Pompfrey as much as you can with the in-coming students."

When Hermione nodded as she kneeled down and grabbed Harry's wrist and the sock and Draco also nodded and reached in to touch the faded sock, McGonagall started her count down.

"Five…four…three…two…one…" and with a wave from McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley, they were being pulled by their navels, back to Hogwarts.

That day last summer would be forever burned in their memories. Especially the look of surprise and overwhelming happiness on Harry's' face when he woke in the hospital wing a week later, to see Hermione and Draco talking quietly at his bedside.

"Her...Hermione? You're alive!" he sputtered, pushing himself up in his bed, catching their attention. "I can't believe it! I didn't believe that they had you at first, but then they sent a picture of…of your mutilated, lifeless bodies. I don't know what happened. An anger like I've never felt before erupted inside me like a two-minute burrito that was cooked for five. I'd been spending the last few weeks of summer at school because McGonagall knew that something was going to happen, so she brought me here. When I got the letter and picture, I stormed up to McGonagall at the head table, crying, and showed her the picture and told her to take me to him. After that, everything went so fast. Loads of people met us there with the Death Eaters, even…Zabini." He fell silent after mentioning his fallen comrade's name.

"Then…then I saw him going into the wood and followed. We exchanged many jinxes, hexes, spells, you name it, and it most likely was cast or conjured. When I retrieved his wand by a lucky chance, I cast the evil portal curse and he was gone. When I regained consciousness in the woods, I thought I'd died because I saw you with a white haze behind you," he said, looking at Hermione. "Then, I guess I fainted again and here you are, sitting here with me and very alive." Silent tears had been falling during this last sentiment, causing Hermione to move up and embrace her best friend

"Almost all our friends are alive and well. You don't have to worry anymore. He's gone forever," she told, pulling away from him and looking at him with friendly love in her eyes.

"We'd better let you relax and get well as you've had a major ordeal and you just woke up." Draco said standing and pulling Hermione up by her elbow as Madam Pompfrey arrived, bringing Harry some much needed food

"Bye Harry, if you need us, don't hesitate to owl"

"I won't. Oh and Mal…I mean Draco!" Harry called from his bed as they were opening the door and starting to head out, Draco turned.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the suggestion of that curse."

"Any time Harry, any time."

Out in the hall, Draco turned to Hermione as they walked hand in hand down the corridor, "Why didn't you tell him where we were going?"

"I have my reasons. I felt that he didn't need to be worried about us while he's trying to recover. Besides, we're big kids, we can take care of ourselves, we don't need to add a new worry," She said, a sly grin on her face causing Draco to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

They spent the last two weeks of their vacation back at Draco's vacation home, walking up and down the beaches of Italy and Greece hand in hand, enjoying each other's presence, before heading back to school as Head Boy and Girl.


End file.
